Kantika--"song" in Ladino--follows the joys and losses of Rebecca Cohen, feisty daughter of the Sephardic elite of early 20th-century Istanbul. When the Cohens lose their wealth and are forced to move to Barcelona and start anew, Rebecca fashions a life and self from what comes her way.
The amount of research that went into Kantika is plain to see ... At times, this exuberant musicality risks going too far and sounding like a fairy tale, and the omniscient narration can sometimes be overwhelming ... Yet Graver’s ability to tenderly and humorously inhabit the mind of Rebecca’s disabled stepdaughter, Luna Levy, sets Kantika apart ... Far from being a Pollyannaish tale of New World success, Kantika is a meticulous endeavor to preserve the memories of a family, an elegy and a celebration both.
With great reverence and respect, Graver fictionalizes the saga of her maternal grandmother ... Graver’s paean to resolve and resiliency paints a vivid portrait of spirit and grit.
[The] longer final section lacks the novel’s earlier vibrancy, perhaps because writing about people she personally remembers constrains Graver. That’s too bad, because in imagining places (including a dreamy Cuba) and people from earlier times, Graver’s poignantly elegiac prose often soars.
